Fostering appreciation of the written word, supporting and educating its creators.

Iron Pen is back!

The fastest writing contest in the Quad Cities is back and taking registrations now!

The Midwest Writing Center is taking registrations for its 9th annual Iron Pen Contest. MWC will supply a prompt to all contestants at 5 p.m. on Friday, February 17th and contestants have 24 hours (entries due Saturday, February 18th at 5 p.m.) to write and submit their best fiction, non-fiction or poetry pieces.

The cost to enter the Iron Pen contest is $10 per entry, per category. Contestant entries will be judged blind in genre categories—Poetry, Fiction and Non-Fiction. The Iron Pen contest is open to all ages. Registration forms can be found online at www.mwcqc.org/contests/iron-pen/ or at the Midwest Writing Center, c/o RIPL, 401 19th St., Rock Island, IL 61201.

**Everyone that participates in the 2017 Iron Pen Contest will have a chance to win a paid-in-full tuition with a value of $250 for the 2017 David R. Collins Writing Conference in June 22-24 at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, IA.**

Contest Timeline:

On Friday, Feb. 17th at 5 p.m. contestants will receive an email from the MWC that includes: a topic, an opening line, or a specific character. The prompt will also be announced on our website www.mwcqc.org, on the MWC Facebook page, and recorded on the MWC outgoing voicemail message.

On Saturday, Feb. 18th, contestants must email or bring their work to the Midwest Writing Center no later than 5 p.m.

The winners will be announced by email on Wednesday, Feb. 22nd. Awards will be given out on Saturday, February 25th at 2 p.m. at the Midwest Writing Center, where the winners and other contestants will be invited to read their work.

On September 8, 2011, MWC passed the following resolution to abide by the principles and practices of the Iowa Register of Accountability:

“The Board of Directors of Midwest Writing, in a regular meeting at which a quorum was present, reviewed the Iowa Principles & Practices for Charitable Nonprofit Excellence. We, the Board of Directors, hereby affirm that our organization already is committed to being guided by the Principles and Practices and is actively engaged in good faith efforts to meet each of them.”